brandon's animal report

Third grade is the year that the kids at our school are required to do their first major report, poster, and presentation all on their own. They get to do it on any animal they want and Brandon chose the Galapagos Tortoise. They have to go to the library and on the internet to find resources. It's a seven paragraph report, with photos, table of contents, bibliography, title page, and diagrams. They could either type it or handwrite their report and Brandon chose to type his. This report took Brandon many, many hours to get done (and much self-control by me to let him do it almost entirely on his own). After his report was completed, he created his poster and then did a two-minute class presentation.
All his efforts were rewarded when he received 100% on his report, 100% on his poster, and 100% on his presentation. It made for a wonderful end to third grade. Watch out 4th grade....here comes Brandon!

As a side note, at the end of the year Brandon's classmates all voted for each other in different categories. Brandon was voted "Most Likely to Become a Millionaire!" I hope he does and it wouldn't surprise me one bit. This boy is very smart and very determined!

natalie's preschool program & party!

Natalie was so excited for her end-of-the-year preschool program and party, it was almost all she could talk about for a few weeks before. This girl loves to be in front of a crowd singing, dancing, or speaking. She is definitely not shy!

They sang about 6 songs. They were all adorable, but I will only put one on here ("Number Rock") for your viewing pleasure (ignore the beginning, she started the wrong song and I am too lazy to edit out those few seconds from the video):



And each child was given a short speaking part:
These are the 11 kids in the preschool class! Their class name is The Busy Bees.
Here's Natalie with her amazing teacher Mrs. Packer!
The day after the program Mrs. Packer hosts a water party & lunch fiesta for all of her classes (28 kids total).
There were only 4 girls in her class and they are such cute little girlfriends (Natalie, Tatum, Chloe, and Livia).
And what would a party be without a pinata? 28 preschool kids swinging a metal bat was slightly terrifying, but thankfully we all escaped unharmed.
Natalie loves preschool, her friends, and Mrs. Packer. She cannot wait to go back in August!

clean house!

Remember THIS POST? A few of you were right...it did motivate me to get things cleaned up (well, that and an overnight guest)! And since you all know how much I love before & after photos, here's proof that I really do have countertops, a desktop, and carpet underneath all that mess! I definitely liked it cleaned up better, but it felt like a stranger's house! And unfortunately it didn't stay like this for long. But I'm trying harder about not letting it get too deep. I just need an overnight visitor every few weeks!

brandon's piano recital & achievement day

May is a busy month for Brandon with piano playing!

One Saturday was an optional Achievement Day that is held at the community college. They learn & perform three memorized songs, 7 sets of scales, and do music sight reading for judges, as well as doing ear training and theory tests. Last year Brandon performed & tested as a Level 1. This year he jumped all the way up to Level 3. He was a bit nervous, but he did great and was thrilled with his trophy, ribbon, and certificate.The next Saturday was piano recital day at his teacher's home.

Brandon was the first to perform and I don't know if he was over-tired from the Father & Son campout the night before, if he was nervous, or if he just totally lost concentration, but it was slightly disastrous. It took him four tries to say one of his song names correct (Chiapanecas) and then at the end of his other song (Light & Blue) he could not find the correct chord at the end! After struggling for a minute, his teacher helped him. His second song sounded better, but also had several silly mistakes. Kevin & I were in shock since he had played those songs memorized perfectly hundreds of times in the past two months!

After the recital, Brandon acted okay but I could tell he was not satisfied with himself (he is somewhat of a perfectionist). After everyone left, I took him back in and asked if he would perform it again for just me & my video camera and it sounded perfect like it usually does:



As tough as his recital performance was, it was a good lesson for both of us. He learned how to deal with mistakes and carry on. I, as a parent, learned that even when your heart is breaking for your child, you cannot fix or change everything. I am so proud of Brandon and his piano achievements. He has come really far in not even two years of playing. He has an amazing talent & musical gift.

peaches!

After three years in this house we FINALLY got tons of really good peaches off our tree! The first year we had two trees, one died and the other gave us a few hard slightly orange things (we actually thought it was an apricot tree, that's how tiny and inedible they were). Last year we got a few dozen very small peaches that were somewhat tasty. This year we have had very mild spring weather (for Arizona) and we literally had hundreds of juicy, ripe peaches that I was giving away by the bagful. They were too small to can, but I made peach syrup and peach cobbler and my friend made a delicious peach jam. I only wish they would have stayed good for longer than a week!
This is only a small section of the tree:
We love our fruit trees (we also have grapefruit, lemon, and orange trees)!

father & sons campout

Kevin and the boys attended the ward Father & Sons campout. Brandon & Tyler have been looking forward to it since they went last year. This year Kevin is the Elder Quorum's President so he was in charge of the whole thing. Because of trying to do many assignments himself (none of his presidency were able to make it), he didn't have a chance to take many photos so I "borrowed" a few from other people's blogs (thanks!).

I didn't get much information from them, but here's what I do know:
1) they got very dirty
2) they ate lots of sugar
3) they didn't sleep much
4) they had a great time
5) they are already excited about next year

So I guess it was a successful father & sons campout!

tyler's first lost tooth!

Guess who lost their first tooth? After watch most of his friends lose their teeth this year in kindergarten, Tyler was very excited to finally have the tooth fairy visit him!

And let's just pretend his fingernails are totally clean and well-manicured!

brandon the wolf scout

Brandon finished his Wolf rank in cub scouts! He had a full year to complete it, but (not surprisingly) he was determined to get it done early and he finished it in 9 months - thanks in big part to his awesome den leaders!

Our pack has a tradition that when a boy gets his Wolf he gets to "wolf" down a Twinkie as fast as he can while everyone chants "WOLF IT! WOLF IT! WOLF IT!" Brandon has seen several other boys do this over the past year and was excited for his turn. He decided he would shove the whole thing in his mouth and then start chewing. His plan backfired a bit, and between laughing and choking, there were several of us very nervous he would vomit it all back up (Kevin got it on video, but we'll spare you!)Thankfully, he was successful and then was awarded his patch and I received my mother's pin.
Great job Brandon - we are so proud of you and support you in all your scouting goals and achievements!

muffins with mom (re-posted)

This was the post that was lost in the Blogger crash a few weeks ago, so it may look familiar if you happened to check my blog in the brief period of time it was up. After waiting almost 3 weeks for them to restore it (meanwhile getting further & further behind on my blogging), I finally decided to re-created it. A HUGE thanks to my good friend Sara who had this post on her feed reader was able to copy and email it to me, saving me a lot of time & frustration!

Tyler's kindergarten class did their "Muffins with Mom" breakfast the day after Mother's Day. It's always fun to spend time with my kids individually and see their excitement in sharing their special events and projects. Tyler made me a lovely "Queen Danika" crown:
I was wondering what funny "Mommy Facts" he would write about me:
Mother's Name: Dneaka
What do you call her: Mommy
How old is she? 35 years old (sad, but true!)
How tall is she? 5 feet
How much does she weigh? 1006 (I'm just going to pretend this said 106)
What color is her hair? blonde
What's her favorite drink and snack? soda and chips (soda yes, chips no)
What does she cook? ravailey (ravioli)
What's her favorite TV show? balareena (he wrote ballerina and meant Dancing With the Stars)
What's her favorite thing to do with you? snugle
What does she like to do for fun? go to the mzeaum (museum....not sure about this!)
What does she do during the day? do her work
What's the one thing she says to you most often? say Tyler (???)
He also decorated a pot and gave me yet another plant to kill!

If I was a mom, I would...
(he scratched it out and wrote "Dad" - when I asked him why he did that, he said "well, I'll never be a mom because I'm not a girl!")
Cook yummy food in the kichin. Cook food like pizza, ravealy (ravioli), inchilada, lasanya, casaydeea (quesadilla). Cook deezert like cookies, cupcakes, brownies, cake, ice cream.
"Moms are nice and smart. They know how to cook and help with homework. They can love us and take care of us." (I'm totally impressed with this one - every word spelled correctly, written neatly, and perfect punctuation).

And here's one of the three cute songs/poems they sang to us:



I am so thankful for Tyler and his sweet, happy spirit. He is a joy in my life and I am lucky to be his mother!